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To: Poet who wrote (9514)	2/11/2001 1:59:43 PM
From: hobo	Respond to of 10876

G' afternoon Poet, some news to keep an eye on for Monday in re: California energy crisis. in addition, the ensuing result could bring other unrelated to the markets effects, (such as re-election of the current governor). in a way this is a case of damned if you do, damned if you do not... (how will the new rates, if passed, affect the inflation picture ?) ___ news.ft.com LA court to decide on Californian power prices By Edward Luce in San Francisco Published: February 11 2001 14:34GMT \| Last Updated: February 11 2001 14:50GMT California's near-bankrupt electricity utilites go to court on Monday in the hope of getting the green light to levy significantly higher electricity charges on the state's consumers. The Los Angeles hearing, which Gray Davis, governor of California, has referred to as a "drop dead date", is expected to play a key role in determining the outcome of the state's intensifying power crisis. The two largest utilities - Pacific G&E and Southern California Edison - have accumulated almost $13bn in debts to national power generators since wholesale prices began to rise sharply last summer. Under the terms of the 1996 deregulation of California's electricity market, the utilities were unable to pass those higher costs on to consumers owing to a rate freeze that was set to remain in place until 2002. Mr Davis, whose re-election hopes next year are thought to be heavily dependent on whether he can resolve the crisis without approving significant consumer rate increases, has criticised the legal action and offered an alternative solution. Under the plan, which has been approved by the state legislature in Sacramento but has yet to finalised, the state would sell $10bn in bonds to buy power on behalf of the troubled utilities and to help repay their debts to the generators. In exchange the state would acquire stock options on the companies' equity and take ownership of California's 26,000 mile electricity transmission grid. However, both the legal action and a plan to resolve the utilities' mounting debts could take weeks or even months to resolve, say officials. In the meantime, concern is growing about the effect that the crisis is having on California's public finances. At an estimated $45m to $50m a day, the cost of buying power on the spot market are starting to eat heavily into the state's fiscal surplus. "California can afford to continue buying power at these prices for a few weeks or so," said David Hitchcock, a senior analyst at Standard & Poors, the credit rating agency, in New York. "But if this goes on for a matter of months then it will start to seriously impair the state's credit rating." Severin Boreinstein, one of America's foremost energy economists, who is based at Berkeley University in northern California, says that the state's request last week for Washington to suspend federal pollution controls to enable much higher levels of power generation would have little positive impact on California's energy crisis. "We have environmental regulations for a reason," said Mr Borenstein. "Los Angeles used to be one of the most smog-ridden cities in America. Now it is one of the cleanest." Furthermore, the Bush administration had been wrong to suggest that California's power shortages highlighted the need to open up a protected nature reserve in Alaska to oil exploration and drilling, he suggested. "The impact of adding fractionally to the world's oil supplies by opening up oil fields in Alaska would be minimal," he said. "It might have a very marginal downward effect on world oil prices but that would be as beneficial to consumers in England or anywhere else as it would be to consumers in California." In tandem with a number of other leading energy economists, Mr Borenstein has called on California to take a dual approach to the state's power crisis that would depart from what is seen as failed practice in most of America's regional electricity markets. First, it should negotiate long-term power contracts with national power generators that would shield the consumer from wild price fluctuations in the wholesale energy market. And second, the state should introduce "real-time pricing" that would enable consumers to adjust their electricity usage by monitoring price changes on their household meters. Mr Davis, who is already negotiating long-term power contracts with national power generators, is thought to be sympathetic to a proposal before the state congress that would authorise the adoption of real-time pricing in Californian households. But any move towards a regulatory system that would allow electricity demand to better adjust to changes in its supply, must await resolution of the state's disagreements with its debt-laded public utilities. In the meantime, says one state official, California could benefit from an act of God or two: "To be honest, there are some advantages to a slowing economy right now if it means lower demand for electricity," said the official. "We are also praying for a very cool summer."

To: Poet who wrote (9514)	2/11/2001 2:06:36 PM
From: hobo	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 10876

Ah yes... of men and mice... Humans beat mice gene count by a squeak By FT.com staff Published: February 11 2001 14:11GMT \| Last Updated: February 11 2001 16:38GMT A mouse and a man may have more in common than initially thought according to a landmark research on the human gene map to be announced on Monday. The research will detail the first in-depth investigation of human genetic code - or genome - and open the door to a new era of medicine. Scientists have found that human beings have far fewer genes than originally thought - only 300 more than a mouse, and just twice as many as a fruit fly. Dr Craig Venter of Celera Genomics, part of one of the two group's behind the The human genomeproject, said most scientists thought there were somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 genes in a human being, but this estimate has been lowered to between 26,000 and 30,000. The estimates bring us closer to a small flowering plant called Arabidopsis thaliana, which has 25,000 genes and a species of tiny worm that has 19,000 genes. Eric Lander, director of the Whitehead Institute Centre for Genome Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a member of the international consortium, said many people may be bothered by the number of genes being so low and consider it as some kind of affront to human dignity. Scientists stress however, that the number of genes is just the starting point for creating complexity. But the potential for effrontery does not end there. The study will also reveal that men are to blame for most inherited genetic mutations. The consortium found that men's bodies create inheritable mutations at about twice the rate of women's. It provides a mixed message for men. Although they provide the greater force for evolutionary change, they create hiccups that may promote disease. The analyses were performed by two teams that made headlines last year when they worked out nearly all the letters of the 3bn-letter human DNA code called the genome. The genome is a chemical sequence that contains the basic information on the mechanics of the human body. The work is part of international efforts to decipher the genetic code of a human being and will, in the upcoming decades, revolutionise the understanding and treatment of disease. Information from the project should help combat diseases like cancer and diabetes, mental illness and drug addiction and bring cures within reach. One team is a consortium of federal and institutional researchers in the US and scientists in five other countries. They will publish their findings in Thursday's issue of Nature. The other team, based at Celera Genomics in Rockville, Maryland will publish its report in Friday's issue of Science. But researchers have decades of work ahead of them as they unravel the results of the project and many other issues to consider. Scientists are wary of the legal, ethical and social implications of genetic advances, saying that caution and wisdom are needed to ensure the benefits are put to proper use. news.ft.com i became curious and did a google on "Arabidopsis" this is what i found: nature.com cauliflower is an edible relative of arabidopsis -g- arabidopsis.com!root.html arabidopsis.com

To: Poet who wrote (9514)	2/11/2001 2:10:08 PM
From: ajtj99	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 10876

Poet, any idea what time AG is scheduled to talk? I believe he usually testifies in the morning between 10:30 and 11:30AM, but I have no clue. I saw that IBM gave their employees a head up on the Nazi news coming out on Friday. Puts on IBM tomorrow seem obvious, but I think I'm going for ORCL and ARBA, as they both have more room to drop. If the market is still weak, STOR has a lockup expiration next Monday. If the market is strong, it may not matter. I'm definitely closing puts on Tuesday AM, and most likely buying calls on Wednesday heading into Max Pain.